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Athens legislators address ‘campus carry’ at post-session luncheon

State Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, speaks during a post-legislative-session review at the Athens Country Club last week. Ginn was the lone member of the local delegation to the Georgia General Assembly to vote in favor of ‘campus carry’ gun legislation. (Photo/ John Roark, Athens Banner-Herald)

State Rep. Chuck Williams, R-Watkinsville, shows a copy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to illustrate how members of the Georgia General Assembly can sometimes be unsure of the exact status of legislation under consideration by lawmakers. Williams, part of the Athens delegation to the state legislature, was among the lawmakers who spoke at a luncheon last week at the Athens Country Club to offer their insights on the just-concluded session of the legislature. (Photo/ John Roark, Athens Banner-Herald)

Rep. Spencer Frye, D-Athens, right, listens to Rep. Regina Quick, R-Athens, during a post-legislative conversation at the Athens Country Club last week. Frye, Quick and the other members of the Athens delegation to the Georgia General Assembly offered their thoughts on the 40-day legislative session to a joint luncheon meeting of the Athens Rotary Club, the Classic City Rotary Club and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. (Photo/ John Roark, Athens Banner-Herald)

Senator Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, speaks during a post-legislative conversation at the Athens Country Club last week. Members of the local delegation to the Georgia General Assembly spoke about their take on the 40-day legislative session that recently concluded. (Photo/ John Roark, Athens Banner-Herald)

State Rep. Spencer Frye, D-Athens, speaks during a Wednesday post-legislative conversation at the Athens Country Club. Members of the local delegation to the Georgia General Assembly spoke about their take on the 40-day legislative session that recently concluded during a luncheon with the Athens Rotary Club, the Classic City Rotary Club, and the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. (Photo/ John Roark, Athens Banner-Herald)

A recent post-session briefing by the Athens delegation to the Georgia General Assembly focused on the “campus carry” gun legislation now awaiting action by Gov. Nathan Deal.

The bill would allow licensed gun owners, who have to be at least 21 years old, to carry concealed handguns on public college campuses. The bill includes some exemptions, prohibiting weapons in student housing including fraternity and sorority houses, at athletic venues, in places where disciplinary hearings are held, in on-campus child care facilities, in faculty and administrative office space, and in areas where high-school students attend classes.

The exemptions are the result of Deal’s guidance to lawmakers in terms of what he would accept in the bill.

Speaking to a combined meeting of the Athens Rotary Club and the Classic City Rotary Club under the auspices of the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce last week at the Athens Country Club, the lone member of the local delegation to support the bill, state Sen. Frank Ginn, R-Danielsville, couched his support in terms of student safety.

“I know that we have students that are in institutions all over the state, some of them are in not the safest areas,” Ginn said. “You get out of class at 9 o’clock at night, and you’re going back to some other part of town, that’s an issue. Just because you’re a college student and above 21 … you shouldn’t have to give up your Second Amendment rights.”

The three other Republicans in the five-person local delegation — Reps. Chuck Williams, R-Watkinsville and Regina Quick, R-Athens, and Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, said they supported the framework of the “campus carry” legislation, but voted against the final version because of the exceptions included in the bill.

Williams said his vote was based on the probability that the exceptions would create confusion for concealed-carry permit holders who might unknowingly place themselves in violation of the law.

“I felt there had been too many carve-outs placed in the bill as far as where on campus licensed 21-year-old permit holders could carry that would create a spiderweb, if you will, that would trap people that may not know whether they were walking into a restricted area,” Williams said.

Quick had a broader concern, telling the luncheon audience that the bill represented an “unreasonable restriction” on the constitutional Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Cowsert told the crowd that his vote was based, in part, on messages from his constituents. Cowsert’s district also includes a share of the University of Georgia campus.

Cowsert said he received between 600 and 800 messages from his constituents asking him to vote against campus carry, with less than 20 messages expressing support for the measure.

Rep. Spencer Frye, D-Athens, the lone Democrat in the local delegation to the state legislature, said he voted against the bill every time it was introduced.

“One thing I didn’t like about it was that universities couldn’t carve themselves out of the bill,” Frye said. He thought that option was necessary, he said, in light of the fact that presidents of every Georgia public university wrote a public letter against the bill.

Among the other issues covered during the post-session luncheon was the prospect of expanding Medicaid, a healthcare program for economically disadvantaged people that is jointly funded by the federal and state governments and administered at the state level.

In Georgia, expansion of Medicaid has been rejected as too costly, but the failure of the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives thus far to develop an alternative to the Affordable Care Act — popularly known as Obamacare — has prompted some debate in the state regarding Medicaid expansion.

Cowsert noted that the issue is in “a state of transition right now,” and went on to suggest that, at the federal level, “the Trump administration will be much more amenable to letting states decide their own plan.”

Frye argued in favor of the Georgia expansion, saying, “I think we need to expand it. …We just passed the highest tax increase in the history of the state to pay for transportation issues … if we had that same feeling toward the health care of our citizens we would have already expanded Medicaid.”

Quick said she didn’t want to expand what she called a “failing program.”

In other discussion at the luncheon, lawmakers offered some thoughts on boosting economic growth in the state.

Quick suggested reducing the income tax for all residents to 5 percent or less, while Williams said investing in workforce development and improving “quality of life issues” were important, and Ginn advocated investigation options for obtaining high-speed internet access for all areas of the state.

Follow reporter Hilary Butschek on Twitter @hilarylbutschek or at https://www.facebook.com/hbutschek.